Haircloth



Patented May 30, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Constant Louis BelgiumAndr Gheysens,

Iseghem,

No Drawing. Application May 6, 1936, Serial No. 78,194. In Belgium May8, 1935 2 Claims.

Our invention relates to a product intended-to replace the productsknown by the name of tailors canvas which are generally woven by meansof animal hair or vegetable fibres and which are employed in tailoringas cloth for stiffening certain fabrics.

The object of our invention is to provide a particularly thin productpossessing considerable elasticity, while being of a much lower costprice than ordinary hair cloths. Furthermore, the

product manufactured according to the invention has the advantage overthe cloth employed heretofore of remaining absolutely invariable evenwhen it is subjected to the action of water which, as is well known,generally causes the shrinkage of the cloth usually employed.

According to the invention, the new product substantially comprises thecombination of a light cloth, with a thin layer or sheet of vegetablefibres or animal hair which is caused to adhere to the cloth by means ofa coating of an elastic material, for example a rubber solution. Theterm light cloth above-mentioned defines a fabric having a low-Weavecount.

In carrying the invention into practice, the product may comprise eithera single layer of cloth of relatively large mesh (i. e., a porous cloth)to which the thin layer of hair is fixed by means of the elasticmaterial, or the new product may comprise two layers of a like clothwith the layer or hair interposed between them. The two layers of clothand the layer of hair are held together by the layer of elastic materialserving as a binder. Finally, according to a modification of theinvention, the product may even comprise, if desired, a single layer orthin sheet of fibres or hair, the individual elements of which have beenmade adherent by the elastic material applied under pressure.

Whatever may be the method of working adopted fer causing the fibres orhair to adhere either to the cloth, serving as their support or toadhere directly together, the product obtained is finally dried andvulcanised, in order to confer upon the adhesive material, rubber forexample, its elasticity and invariability.

By way of example, there will be described in detail hereinafter amethod of carrying out the 50 invention in the case of a productcomprising a single layer of cloth serving as support for the hair(animal hair or vegetable fibres) fixed to the said support by means ofthe elastic material.

In this case, the process may be carried out as 55 follows:

The cloth forming the support is unrolled on to a table.

After having suitably fixed the said cloth to the table, there is spreadupon it, in a thin sheet, a fine shower of hair, for example by means ofa 5 sieve which has a reciprocatory movement and which is displacedabove the table. The cloth thus covered with the thin sheet of hair isthen coated with the elastic material, for example, latex, either bymeans of a spraying device or a 1 gumming roller moving over the table.When the cloth covered with hair has been sufficiently coated, it isslightly dried in the air and is then passed through a calender whichbrings it to the desired thickness. The product thus obtained is 15 thenfinally subjected to the operation of vulcanisation.

A similar process may be employed in the case in which the productcomprises two layers of cloth with a layer of hair inserted betweenthem. 20 In this case, it is merely necessary to apply the second clothto the first, after the same has been coated with hair in the mannerspecified hereinbefore, such application being effected before thepassage through the calender. 25

It is obvious however that it is possible to ob-. tain a productconsisting merely of a thin sheet of rubber or latex in which the hairis incorporated. Such product, which is similar both from the point ofview of its constitution and its prop- 30 erties, may be obtained byspreading the hair or fibres directly on a suitable surface coated withlatex or rubber and then subjecting the whole to pressure in order toensure the cohesion of the interlaced fibres and to form on thesupporting 35 surface a product constituted by a film-like layer ofrubber containing the hair and adapted to be subsequently separated fromits support in order to be passed through a calender, dried and thenvulcanised. 40

In the process above-described in which cloth is used as a support, thecloth, instead of being stationary, may likewise be unrolled below asieve whence it receives a thin layer of fibre, then it passes under thesprayers which coat it with elas- 45 tic material and afterwards throughthe calender which brings it to the desired thickness.

Experience has shown that the product thus obtained constitutes a finecloth or sheet of extreme flexibility which cannot shrink under theinfluence of water and which consequently may be employed advantageouslyin place of the ordinary haircloth known as "tailors canvas.

What we claim is:

1. A porous hair-cloth resilient in all directions miscuously scatteredin all directions and spaced droplets of latex serving to secure theexterior sheets of cloth together and to bind the individual hairs toone another so as to oppose the tendency of the hair to work itselfthrough the cloth.

EUGENE AIME CONSTANT ALFRED) GHEYsENs. PAUL CONSTANT LOUIS ANDRE:GHE'YSENS.

